Picture your next vacation. What sounds better, a pre-organized group trip to see the sites of one of the world’s greatest cities or something off the beaten path that you can tailor on your own? Depending on your preferences, a tourist-packed extravaganza could seem like a blessing or a curse. The point is that everyone has a different opinion of his or her “ideal” vacation.

Your donors are the same way. Some are perfectly happy receiving a flyer in the mail every few months reminding them to donate. Others find these methods outdated and impersonal. While still others want to get information from your organization’s mail, phone, email marketing and social marketing communications at various points in their engagement with you.

So much to do so little time…sound familiar? All of us know the importance of a strong marketing strategy, but when you’re resources and budget are limited, this may get pushed to the back burner. Luckily, there are tools like email marketing automation to help you get back on track while saving time and money. Predictive Response recently had a webinar on this topic illustrating three types of campaigns.

Many organizations struggle with the decision of whether or not to post a dollar amount during their fundraising campaign. While it can be stressful and at times quite scary (what if the goal is not met?), announcing a number is helpful in motivating and inspiring your donors to give more.

Well, we’re halfway through October, folks! If you can believe it, Halloween is less than two weeks away and before you know it every mall in the country will be blasting “Deck the Halls.” Most of you know what this means: year-end fundraising is upon us! Dun dun dun. Did you know that nonprofits make most of their money between October and December? Yep – a strong year-end campaign can make or break a nonprofit’s budget for the New Year. But don’t go running in fear! With a little help, you still have time to make 2014 the best year ever.

So often great campaigns go wrong and miss their target due to a few very common but avoidable mistakes. It can be hard to sift through the pages of articles and blog posts boasting the “best practices” and “must-do” tips for year-end fundraising. Who can be trusted to give the most accurate and results-based advice? Fear not! Tune in to our webinar to have fundraising experts from Heller Consulting and Classy guide you through this prep period to ensure that your year-end campaign will be successful.

Not too long ago, I didn’t have to worry about year-end fundraising – and I’m not going to lie, it was pretty glorious.

It was the year I worked at a tech firm on a social media publishing and listening product. Turns out Fortune 500 companies don’t do a lot of year-end fundraising.

And it was the first year in 10, maybe 12(?) that I wasn’t making last minute changes to copy and constantly refreshing numbers to see how appeals were performing for my clients.

Aside from a little break, the year that I wasn’t responsible for crafting or sending out a TON of fundraising appeals, was also a chance for me to gain some perspective about how year-end fundraising must look to someone who doesn’t do this for a living.